Hummus is Yummus

The Detroit area boasts the largest Arab population outside the Middle East, I am lucky to have restaurants in close proximity that have great hummus, even local grocery stores have really good hummus, I can't however swallow the price. Such simple ingredients and still my preferred brand is $2.99 for an 8 oz. tub and mind you a tub in my house d/n go very far, so I sought out a home recipe and spent a long time chatting with Lebanese friends who lets face it make hummus really yummus to compose a very simple recipe. I ran in to an interesting road block when chatting about hummus most commented well my mom d/n have a recipe she kind of throws this.

Now I have gathered that hummus is made of either tahini (sesame paste) or olive oil not both. The first few recipes from well known cookbooks had either too much garlic or where very dry, too much tahini and all called for both tahini and olive oil. The traditional approach generally calls for just tahini considering the olive oil will emulsify the mixture. In no way am I an expert but I found the below combination is an approach to hummus rather than a recipe the whole point of cooking is to combine things to suit your taste, you like garlic add more, you like tart flavors add more lemon, like a nutty flavor add less chick peas and more tahini. This is truly a recipe that one could make their own, add roasted red pepper, sun-dried tomato, artichoke, olives anything really.

Makes 2 cups
Ingredients
1/2 cup of stirred tahini
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 16 oz can Chick Peas or (1.5lb dried, soaked overnight)
1-2 large cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tsp. honey (optional, nice if garlic is a bit to powerful)
Paprika and olive oil drizzle (optional)

Directions
1.) Place strained canned chick peas in small pot and 2-3 cups of water, bring to a boil for 5-6 minutes, drain and retain 1 cup of the cooking liquid. Remove skins and place in food processor and pulse.
2.) Mince garlic with microplane (can just throw in to food processor)
3.) Add garlic, tahini and salt to food processor and pulse until smooth. Add cooking liquid if mixture is too thick. Check seasoning and add honey and additional salt if needed.
4.) Place in bowl and spring with paprika and olive oil. Store in fridge for up to 2 weeks but trust me it won't last that long.